Out of Bounds
by Oi-Watch-It-Spaceman
Summary: Hand holding is out for the Doctor and Rose, at least for a couple of days. Surely it can't be that hard...


**Wrote this for winterinthetardis on her birthday in 2012. Only just unearthed it from the depths of my blog and thought it should be on here. Enjoy!**_  
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"Tea!" Rose called as she walked into the console room, a mug in either hand. "I'm sorry Doctor, but surely the TARDIS is advanced enough that the heating can't just break?" The Doctor glanced up to see that Rose had pink hand warmers on her hands and a long stripy scarf around her neck (he felt a smile bubble to his lips at the sight of the multicoloured stripes – he had enjoyed wearing his stripy scarf.)

Just because she is the best ship in the universe," – the TARDIS hummed in agreement – "does not mean that things don't go wrong for her as well. I'll be able to fix it in a couple of minutes, just hang on."

Rose put his mug down on the console, next to him and leaned against the jump seat, sipping from hers and watching him work. The Doctor continued to use his sonic screwdriver on the wires, trying to ignore the feeling that Rose was watching him.

A split second later he found himself flying through the air, the TARDIS tilting violently and throwing him and Rose against each other. Apparently he had managed to sonic the wrong wire, and the TARDIS was reacting rather badly. The Doctor felt the air rush from his lungs as Rose fell hard against him, dropping her mug in the process.

The mug smashed quite spectacularly on the floor, shards flying through the air as the hot tea trickled through the grating. Both Rose and the Doctor landed in a pile of limbs and shattered china. The TARDIS stopped moving and for a moment everything was motionless.

The Doctor raised his head, peering around the room and wincing as he catalogued the injuries he had sustained. Bang to the back of the head, throbbing faintly but nothing serious, bruises on the legs, small stabbing pains in the hands and forearms. "That'd enough of that," he called to the TARDIS, "wrong wire, won't do it again, now you behave." His eyes focused on the remains of the mug, and he sprang up from the floor as though he had received an electric shock.

"No no no, not tea, no!" He ripped up the grating and yanked off his coat, using it to soak up the tea that was making its way through the tangle of wires underneath.

"Will it be OK?" Rose asked from behind him.

"Oh I expect so, caught it just in time before it hit anything major, I'm good at that you know." He took the towel that Rose handed to him (the TARDIS seemed to have sensed what he needed, just as she always did) and used it instead of his coat to mop up the rest of the tea. Finished, he stood up, replacing the grating and spinning around to face Rose. "Sorted."

Rose grinned at him, and he reached for her hand. She recoiled sharply, hissing in pain. "What's wrong?" the Doctor asked, suddenly realising that he had not check to see if Rose was OK. It had been a pretty violent fall even for the TARDIS. For a Time Lord he wasn't half stupid at times.

Rose held out her hands, and the Doctor looked at them without touching. There were little spots of blood on her fingers and dotted over her hand warmers, and in places he could see little pieces of white china stuck in them. Suddenly more aware of the pain in his own hands, he held them up, only to realise that he had sustained the same injuries as Rose, cuts and shards covering his hands and even travelling over his wrists and up his arms. "Oh right. That'll be what's wrong then."

"Probably," Rose replied, a little smile still evident on her face. "I suppose I'm quite lucky really, with the speed you pulled the flooring up you were lucky I didn't get hit in the face by pieces of flying mug."

"Sorry 'bout that."

"Anyway, hadn't we better do something about this?" She waved her hands at him carefully, wincing even at the gentle movement. "Though how are either of us going to be able to help the other, if we both can't use our hands?"

The Doctor screwed up his face in thought. "I suppose I could always use my feet. You know, tweezers, plasters, a few stitches, easy!"

Rose backed away a few steps. "If you come anywhere near me and try to sew stitches with your feet then I will smack you, I don't care how much my hands hurt."

"You wouldn't catch me anyway, I have the reflexes of a ninja." He kicked her playfully in the leg, and Rose hooked her foot around his ankle, pulling hard and nearly tipping him over.

"Oh yeah, graceful as a cat and quick as a ninja, how could I have missed that?" Rose grinned at him before turning and running towards the medical room, hands held out stiffly in front of her.

The Doctor shouted after her. "You're going to regret saying that when you can't open the door with your hands, 'cause I won't be taking off my shoes and using my brilliantly talented feet to save you!"

"To be honest, Doctor, I think I'll survive! Besides, how could you undo your laces?"

The Doctor frowned. Stupid human logic.

—-

"All done," the Doctor proclaimed, securing the bandages around Rose's hands with a flourish, "I've used the sonic on them, they should be completely healed in a day or so."

He had quickly used tweezers to remove the shards in his hands before he began to help Rose, ignoring the pain in his fingers – as a Time Lord he healed much faster than a human, in a couple of hours there would be no sign that he had ever injured his hands at all.

Rose flexed her fingers or, at least, she attempted to. They were covered with bandages and still quite painful. She stood up and put her arms carefully around the Doctor so she didn't hurt her hands, whispering a thankyou in his ear. The Doctor returned the hug, squeezing Rose tightly before letting her go. He reached out to grasp her hand automatically and, for the second time that day, she pulled away with a gasp of pain.

"You're not doing that again until my hands are better," Rose told him. The Doctor stuck his hands in his pockets. "I mean it. Until I get these bandages off, my hands are out of bounds. Got that?"

The Doctor sighed but nodded grudgingly. 24 hours or so, it wasn't exactly going to be difficult.

They returned to the console room. The TARDIS has already cleared up the mess, so the Doctor continued his earlier task of fixing the heating, chattering away to Rose as he worked. It wasn't as if he spent all hours of the day with his hand glued to Rose's, but the longer he spent in the room with her, his hand feeling slightly empty, the more frustrated he felt. It might've had something to do with his inability to actually say anything meaningful to her, but without holding her hand as a way to show her how he felt, the Doctor felt pretty much useless, and he didn't like it.

—-

The Doctor slammed the TARDIS doors after them, immediately running up to the console and taking the TARDIS into the vortex. Their last adventure had been interesting to say the least, all leading up to the moment when, just as they were hiding behind a pile of boxes from a group of hostile aliens with guns, the Doctor had reached for Rose's hand and squeezed it. She had squeaked in pain, the aliens had discovered them, and it had taken a ridiculous amount of running in order for them both to escape unharmed.

"Doctor, that was just plain stupid." Rose was standing next to the console with her arms folded (as best she could while trying not to hurt her hands) looking thoroughly unamused. "You had one job, Doctor, and it didn't really work out that well did it?"

"Well I didn't know what else to do," the Doctor complained loudly.

Rose rolled her eyes in a way that he was certain she had picked up from his ninth regeneration, and walked forward to stand in front of him. "Honestly, sometimes I wonder what you use that enormous brain for, you idiot." She ignored his indignant look and continued. "There must be species out there that don't even _have _hands, and you're telling me you can't think of any way around _this_?" She waved her bandaged hands in his face. The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck slightly sheepishly.

Rose took him by surprise by suddenly wrapping her arms tightly around his middle. The hug only lasted a second or two, but it was warm and soft and brilliant even so. "See?" Rose asked, pulling away and smiling at him. "I know you love a hug – it seems like you do nearly nothing else, to be honest." The Doctor grinned at her, the grin vanishing as she leaned forward, reaching up and using the tips of her bandaged fingers to move his head down. She rested her forehead against his and closed her eyes. The Doctor closed his eyes, each breath sounding like a tornado compared to the silence of the room.

"See. You could do this." Rose had spoken but the Doctor had not opened his eyes. "Or this." He felt Rose's nose brush his, before she moved and swiftly kissed his cheek.

The Doctor did not move a muscle. He felt Rose pull away and opened his eyes, unprepared for the intensity that he saw in hers.

The Doctor could feel alarm bells ringing in his head, brain whirring a mile a minute. _Is she going to kiss me? Should I kiss her? Will this ruin anything? Oh god, what if it's really awkward? What if she leaves? She can't leave! You've got to do something, and fast. _In about 2 seconds the Doctor had just about burnt out his brain with trying to work out what should happen next. After what seemed like an age to him, though it was only in fact 3 seconds or so, the Doctor shut off all of his panicked thoughts, pushing them to the back of his mind as he leaned forward and gently kissed Rose.

It was only short – the Doctor barely had time to comprehend that Rose was kissing him back before he pulled away, breathless and confused and euphoric all at once. Rose was smiling gently, reaching up to stroke his face before wincing in pain.

"Now who's being silly," the Doctor asked her, grinning at her scowl, "why do you need to do _that_ when we could do more of _this_?" He kissed her again, feeling her smile even if he couldn't see it. They fitted together perfectly - he had always known that they would.

About 24 hours later they were kissing again. Rose's hands had finally healed, thanks to a bit of help from the Doctor and the sonic screwdrvier. As he wrapped his arms firmly around Rose's waist, the Doctor realised how good it felt to have Rose burying her hands in his thick, brown hair. It improved the experience a significant amount, in his opinion.


End file.
